‘Four-Closure’: How Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google are driving business model innovation

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether mergers create value for shareholders in both the short and long term. For this purpose, 120 announcements of mergers that were registered in Italy during the period 1994-2006 among listed companies were examined. The short-term analysis was conducted using the event study methodology in order to estimate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) in the time window around the announcement date (-10, +10). In this work, the sample of 120 mergers was divided into two sub-samples: the first considers the mergers that were carried out in all sectors of the economy, and the second focuses only on bank mergers. From the results obtained it would appear that, while the sub-sample of all mergers registered a statistically significant value creation for the shareholders of both the bidder and target companies, values also confirmed by combined analysis, the second sub-sample registered negative values for bidder companies and positive values for target companies. Negative values also seem to be confirmed by the results of the combined analysis both at the date of announcement and throughout the entire period of observation. For the long-term analysis, the Buy and Hold Abnormal Returns (BHARs) methodology was used, with which it was possible to observe the returns for three years. In the 36 months following the merger, the portfolios showed a significant destruction of value.

Um Novo Paradigma De Multinacionais? Novas Relações De Poder Na Era Do Capitalismo Digital

“…Posto isso, ao invés de competirem afim de estabelecer um monopólio, cada uma das firmas do GAFAM procuram desenvolver lideranças em sua própria plataforma. Dessa maneira, pode-se observar essas empresas baseadas em uma plataforma central ligada a outras complementares, que acabam por serem conectadas, criando ainda dependência daqueles stakeholders ligados a elas (WALTON, 2012).…”

“…Junto a isso, tem-se como exemplo dentro da própria dinâmica das empresas digitais que a primeira "gang dos quatro" (Intel, Microsoft, Cisco e Dell) perderam sua centralidade ao serem substituídas pelos novos quatro (WALTON, 2012). Em razão disso, ao observar essas empresas como imparáveis e como necessárias de medidas de regulamentação, negligencia-se, na linha de Evans (2017), fatores como a própria dinâmica de atuação e o modelo de operação pelo qual essas companhias existem, de forma que características como competição de ecossistema, necessidade de inovações constantes, não primordialidade de economias escala, etc., colocariam essas empresas do capitalismo digital em cenário de competição que as obriga a concorrer entre si constantemente, tecendo um sistema que se auto regula em diversas características.…”

¿Quién controlará la Comunicación? El impacto de los GAFAM sobre las industrias mediáticas en el entorno de la economía digital

“…Este grupo originariamente constituido por Google, Apple, Facebook y Amazon (aquí añadimos Microsoft) son conocidos también como los señores del aire (Echevarría, 1999), los amos de la economía digital (Barefoot et al, 2018), The gang of four (Walton, 2012), The Four Horseme (Zaryouni, 2015) o simplemente The Four (Gallaway, 2017). El término "señores" resulta pertinente, pues remite a los señores feudales, que todo lo controlaban; incluso el trabajo les pertenecía.…”

Who will control the media? The impact of GAFAM on the media industries in the digital economy

“…This group, which was originally composed by Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon (here we add Microsoft), are also known as "the lords of the air" (Echevarría, 1999), "the masters of the digital economy" (Barefoot et al, 2018), "the gang of four" (Walton, 2012), "the four horsemen" (Zaryouni, 2015) or simply "the four" (Gallaway, 2017). The term "lords" is pertinent, for it refers to the feudal lords, who controlled everything; even work belonged to them.…”